Lee Strasberg (1901-82) served (1948–82) as artistic director, teacher, and actor at The Actors Studio, New York City. He was known as the chief American exponent of “method acting,” in which actors are encouraged to use their own emotional experience and memory in preparing to “live” a role. He authored A Dream of Passion: The Development of the Method (1988).

the performing art in which movement, gesture, and intonation are used to realize a fictional character for the stage, for motion pictures, or for television. Acting is generally agreed to be a matter less of mimicry, exhibitionism, or imitation than of the ability to react to imaginary stimuli. Its essential elements remain the twin requisites enunciated by the French actor François-Joseph Talma in his tribute to the actor Lekain (1825): “an extreme sensibility and a profound intelligence.” For Talma it is sensibility that allows an actor to mark his face with the emotions of the character he is playing and to convey the intentions of the playwright, the implications of the text, and the movements of the “soul” of the character. Intelligence—the understanding of the workings of the human personality—is the faculty that orders these impressions for an audience. The essential problems in acting—those of whether the actor actually “feels” or merely imitates, of whether he should speak...

“The definitive source book on acting.”—
Los Angeles Times Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, Paul Newman, Dustin Hoffman, Dennis Hopper, Robert DeNiro, Marilyn Monroe, and Joanne Woodward—these are only a few of the many actors training in “Method” acting by the great and legendary Lee Strasberg. This revolutionary theory of acting—developed by Stanislavski and continued by Strasberg—has been a major influence on the art of acting in our time. During his last decade, Strasberg devoted...

The Lee Strasberg Notes reproduces the original teachings of a unique voice in actor training, for the very first time. It is a stunning document in the history and ongoing practice of Strasberg’s Method. Compiled and edited by Lola Cohen, the book is based on unpublished transcripts of Strasberg’s own classes on acting, directing and Shakespeare. It recreates his theoretical approach, as well as the practical exercises used by his students, and brilliantly conveys his...

"A fascinating close-up of Mr. Strasberg's philosophy of theatre and method of working with actors."--Eliot Fremont-Smith, The New York Times Unavailable for over fifteen years, these transcripts of Strasberg's private acting classes provide a revealing look at one of the nation's most famous acting schools and its controversial leader.